Adding to the many perks of working at Facebook’s campus is now an opportunity to move in next door–because who isn’t sick of their healthy work/life balance?

The social media giant announced plans to erect a community development a mere 1.5 miles from the Menlo Park, Calif. sprawl. The $120 million, 630,00 square-foot complex will house 394 units including studio apartments and three-bedroom apartments, with a handful of units set aside for non-Facebook employees and low-income residents.

Facebook hired local developers St. Anton Partners to helm the project located between the 101 freeway and salt marshes, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company has not disclosed how much they plan to invest. Construction begins this month and is expected to be complete in 24 months.

In company tradition, Facebook is not skimping on the amenities. Anton Menlo, as the community will be called, will feature a sports bar, doggy day care, convenience store as well as a swimming pool. Renderings of the new addition to the Facebook playground depict a sleek, contemporary complex akin to a modish Miami hotel. And like an exclusive hotel, the complex will be highly sought-after, as it’s only able to accomodate about 10 percent of Facebook’s workforce.

Many have compared it to company towns made popular a century ago, but the new neighborhood is a “five-minute bike ride” from an already outfitted creative campus touting perks like free lattes and ice cream, shops and sprawling parks.

Up next: Facebook-sponsored churches so employees can gain official membership to the Cult of Likes.

Imagine the project turning majorly appealing... then most employees would gladly live in the housing complex and send their kids to local schools. Thus raising the APIs of schools. If the schools get overloaded, Mark Zuckerberg, can start constructing private schools as well.

i don't understand why people think this is a bad thing!!! i'd have loved to live within walking distance from my job in a brand new clean apartment. and its optional, its not like their are forcing their employees to live there and deduct the rent from their paycheck. they are simply giving an option to their employees to live closer to their work.

Now this is very disturbing. More so than its open graph search. Seems Facebook is now officially gone nuts and enslaving its employees. I'm glad I deleted my Facebook account last year. Facebook will soon be like MySpace, an empty shell of its former self though it might take several years. I would say in about 5 years, it will bet withered and a desicatted website. FB has no real value and produces no tangible goods.

This is very common in Korea and they are quite happy with the Samsung job and Samsung housing, Samsung TV, Samsung toothpaste, and so on. It's interesting to see how integrated and loyal they are and a fascinating culture.

I came away feeling like it was different, but ingrained into the culture. Seems like some people aren't at all unhappy with it but others feel like flaming anything that's not like the way they live- who am I to judge? Why buy gas when you can take a nice stroll? It's not like they are chained to a desk all day over there anyway.

I currently live in Marietta, GA in a Lockheed house... a house built in 1943 for the newly constructed Lockheed Martin facility only a mile or so away. There were several subdivisions constructed for the new workers coming into the area at that time. So what FB is doing is definitely not a new concept.

There is actually a lot of logic to this. Two years ago, I was offered a job with Amazon.com which would've required me to relocate from the east coast to Seattle, WA. I own a house that I had only bought a year before, and would have been financially tanked if I'd tried to sell the house. If, however, Amazon had offered a subsidized apartment for me, I would've taken the offer gladly.

Most of the tech & social media giants hire all over the world, but require those they court to relocate. As such, it's actually quite nice to know that at least one of those companies will be able to provide immediate housing for folks who are relocating and may not have the resources needed to quickly find a place that's affordable.

I have to imagine FB did some kind of research before deciding to build housing. Sounds like there was enough of an interest. It only houses 10% of the workforce. So, that's not a very big "cult" guys. And, it doesn't sound like anyone will be forced to live there. So, let's stop with the cult and company town comparisons.

This isn't creepy at all. Most military bases have the same thing for their people, in fact for the first few years of a young enlisted-person's career they're probably going to be in dorms and barracks.

Seems the British started this with Lever's Port Sunlight Village in the late 1880's...total control of their employees' lives was the goal to ensure or enslave their workforce till they died...Henry Ford sort of did the same with his employees thill they revolted on him...

@IvanAJagerbomb Actually a lot of people at Facebook aren't interested in hanging out with other well to do folks or more fortunate people and many projects in urban areas are only approved if a percentage of the units are set aside for the less fortunate.

When was the last time you built a house for someone for free? I've done it, in Mexico, built a house with 30 other volunteers in 4 days and I'll leave my founder's job at a cloud computing company this weekend and go weld the stair railings and do carpentry repairs for free at a local beach.

Give it a try!

It's really a rewarding way to meet people that aren't like yourself and do something to make the world a better place, no matter if its even a small contribution you might feel better and change your tune about it.

@kidofstreet Retired from the Army after 20 years. While what you say is true, it's not really the same thing. When you join the military, you are pretty much owned by Uncle Sam -- they can pretty much do what they want with you. As far as housing is concerned, the first thing they want to do is get out of military housing. But, if they want to live in Facebook facilities, or whatever, it could be a lot worse. A lot of perks, but keep in mind these kids are sometimes working around the clock -- first because they love the work, eventually just to keep up. Been there and done that as a Software Engineer for over 30 years -- now retired and not missing it at all.

@nuclearmike55Ford believed that if workers are motivated to work, they will work their hardest and very best. In order to motivate workers, Henry Ford did something no one would have thought of doing at that time: increasing the minimum wage. "At one stroke, it will reduce hours from nine to eight, and add to every man's pay a share of the profits of the house"--This was Henry Ford's ideas. The smallest to be received by a man 22 years old and upwards will be $5 per day (Brinkley). This idea ultimately revolutionized the way many people thought about the way businesses should run. Many companies and presses were shocked and awed by what Ford did; still, Ford's employees were very happy. Because of the 5 dollar work day, absenteeism dropped as more people wanted to work (Brinkley). Productivity rose and strikes became less likely. People who heard about what Henry Ford had done, rushed to see if they were lucky enough to be hired by the Ford Company. Ford's business philosophy was so big that it was headline news in many different newspapers all around the country. In effect, other Detroit motor companies suffered high absenteeism and general destruction due to the $5 dollar day at Ford Motor Company (Watts). People left companies such as GM in order to work at Ford Company. Strikes rose at other Automobile Manufacturers as a result of people wanting to be treated just as well at Ford Motors (Watts). This allowed Ford to have the upper hand in the automobile industry. He proved himself in his own self acclaimed words: 'There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible' ('Henry Ford-Founder of Ford Motor Company and Assembly line Innovator').

@nuclearmike55 Henry Ford bought about 30% of Grosse Ile and made it easy on his senior executives to build nice waterfront places, and set the tone for excellent education and upscale living in a place that consistently scores as one of the nicest places to live near Detroit to this day- so there's a response to your sort of based upon facts.

He paid 5 bucks when the others paid a dollar also to the common man. In short, he took care of his people better than Olds who built a giant mansion on Elba Island nearby and did nothing of the sort.

@MrsZ@HaroldWilliamHoldren Not in California. You have transient occupancy agreements where there is the right to access the premises under thirty days and retain possessory rights, like a vacation rental or hotel, and term agreements over thirty days where the tenancy is the personal property of the signatory to the agreement.